wander holidays

okay, y’all. i’m just going to go ahead and apologize for the delay in this blog post.. it’s been a long time coming. i haven’t posted all year (ba dum, tsss) and i have no excuse except for the fact that i traveled for 20 days straight over the holidays and couldn’t really sit down at a random computer to start blogging. soo…

happy new year! it’s 2014!! i can’t believe it.. i feel like new year’s 2013 was just like 6 weeks ago… i really need to get my internal calendar sorted. i’ve been out of the country for over 4 months, and i’ll be home just over 4 months from now! ay caramba.

in the interest of not making this post a total “captain’s log” of my travels, i give you a bridget jones version of my holiday season saga. (if you want the longer version, feel free to read below!)

          days elapsed: 20

          countries visited: 3

          cities visited: 9

          friends visited: 14

          friends made: 16

          modes of transportation used: plane (4), train (4), bus (11), car (many)

          party games played: 4

          presents: given – 6 // received – 5

          cups of tea consumed: innumerable

          most interesting experience: england – singing christmas carols on the train to 

          cambridge with a bunch   of mildly-intoxicated football hooligans // 

          ireland – partying until nearly dawn with a different bunch of 

          slightly-more-than-mildly-intoxicated couchsurfing buddies

okay, that’s enough of that. here’s the longer version!

basically, i spent the first week of my break (well, tuesday through saturday) getting to the place where i’d be spending christmas – six cities in six days, and it was a whirlwind. excideuil, bordeaux, nantes, dublin, london, cambridge! i had a blast visiting friends in each of my stops along the way – several of whom i hadn’t seen since 2011! crazy! the highlight of that week was probably my pit stop in london. i hung out with my first-ever couchsurfing host, tristan, and got to see the beauty that is london at christmas. plus, i finally got my picture at platform 9 3/4. so, i got that going for me.

arriving in cambridge was a welcomed respite – i was really looking forward to sleeping in the same bed for more than one night! i spent the week with two dear friends from home – cameron and carly. if you’ve been following this blog for a while, you might remember them from my time in scotland back in september! they spent this fall semester in cambridge as a part of a seminary exchange program between westcott house in cambridge and sewanee, back in tennessee. we visited several of the major colleges in town, decorated our makeshift christmas tree, attended multiple anglican masses (including christmas eve midnight mass and christmas morning mass, a scant 8 hours apart), cooked several lovely meals, shopped a little, and celebrated our first christmas away from home, together as friends abroad. it was a wonderful way to enjoy the holiday – i was so grateful to have a little bit of home with me here in europe! :)

the next week and a half of my vacation was spent in varying parts of ireland. i moved around so much in the first few days! one night in dublin, two nights in cork, one night in galway, and then i finally landed in clare for new year’s! the weekend in cork was an absolute blast – one of the best couchsurfing experiences i’ve had to date. my host and his friends were the epitome of hospitality and i felt right at home from the very beginning. i mean.. i was jokingly (but maybe not?) invited to their friend’s wedding in brazil next summer after having been at the house for like 6 hours. typical. a weekend was not long enough in cork; i can’t wait to go back and explore the city a little more! a quick pit stop in galway allowed me to visit with my friend emma and her family before i headed back down to clare to relax for a few days at my friend shane’s house. we essentially had a 4 day house party, with varying groups of friends coming to hang out each night! i always love getting to spend time in that house – it’s so wonderful to be in a family environment! warms the soul. and our new year’s eve was the perfect mix of relaxing and entertaining – and by that, i mean i got to wear comfy clothes and not worry about braving the elements outside, while still partying it up with my friends! my last night in ireland was spent in wonderful company, wandering around dublin and soaking in that fantastic irish charm. this break really reinforced my desire to move to ireland in the very near future.. might have even started researching grad school options! shh, don’t tell my parents.

i finally, finally made it back home to my little village on sunday, after spending the night in bordeaux after my flight. living in a place with no train station (or even bus access on the weekends) makes getting in and out fairly difficult, but thankfully i have friends at each step in the journey that make traveling much more enjoyable! now that i’m home and can reflect on this break, i have to admit.. i probably overdid it a little bit. my life here in excideuil is so relaxing and laid-back that my vacations are actually more demanding and stressful than my work weeks! next break, i’m going to focus on one country (morocco!!) in the hopes of giving myself more time to enjoy fewer places. and i might even take a week off from travel planning before i launch myself into that new endeavor! vacationing is hard work, y’all.

i hope that you had a wonderful holiday season, and that 2014 brings you all the happiness and adventure that you can imagine! wander on, my friends!

*as always, if you’d like to see pictures from this post, just click here (starting at #29)!*

couchsurfing and ceilidhs - scotland, week two.

one of the best parts of my entire trip was the train ride from stirling to fort william – it took about four hours and genuinely left me speechless several times. the route went right alongside loch lomond through the mountains, before splitting off to the west, straight into the highlands. it was absolutely breathtaking.

i spent two nights in fort william, which i was initially apprehensive about (tiny town, traveling alone) but it ended up being so great! when i arrived at the hostel, i met several fellow wanderers in the common room. i chatted with two belgian girls before offering an open dinner invitation to the room, and two australian guys took me up on the offer! so, i made two friends pretty quickly… which is weird, for me, but i’m kind of a different person when i travel. more on that another time. their names were ryan and kris, and they were on a two-month european tour before they headed to western canada to work at a ski resort for the season. ah, the vagrant life. we had dinner and pints, and then stayed up and chatted for a while. once we got back to the hostel, the universe smiled on me – my roommate for the evening was an older french woman who spoke pretty much no english. we talked for a long time, and since it was kind of a trial-by-fire surprise to me, i didn’t have time to get nervous about my french. it was a great practice session, and reminder that i do actually speak french with some level of ability. anyways.

the full day in fort william (friday) was actually not in fort william, per se… i had gone to fort william with the intention to ride the jacobite train (made famous by its use at the hogwarts express in the harry potter films!), but the night before, ryan and kris offered to let me tag along with them to the isle of skye for the day… i really wanted to go to skye, and the thought of having some friends to hang with the day was very appealing. basically, the decision came down to riding a really awesome train through some awesome scenery alone for 33 pounds, or riding a bus through the exact same scenery and then getting to go on the ferry to the island with friends for 20 pounds. so i went with the second option, and vowed to come back for the jacobite train with mary lyn or colleen or someone. (that way, i’ll have someone to quote the books with and not look like a crazy person.)

the trip to skye was gorgeous – i can’t explain the landscape. it’s so rugged and natural, and i had the distinct feeling multiple times that a group of tartan-wearing highlanders was going to come running over the hills at any moment. there’s something about scotland that really makes you feel like you’ve gone back in time. not just because everything is very old – it just has this spirit of longevity, like the land is inextricably tied with the history that has taken place on it. those mountains have seen things, man.

the next four days went by in a sudafed-enhanced blur – the cold, wet weather and constant traveling finally caught up with me, and i woke up preeeetty sick on friday morning. so, the continuation of my trip to inverness and aberdeen was a little fuzzy. however, i did tough it out enough to make my afternoon at loch ness totally awesome. i left my backpack at the tourism office of this tiny village and walked 2 miles up to urquhart castle – totally worth the visit. talk about history feeling alive! i was unsuccessful in my hunt for nessie… but i know she’s there somewhere. after the walk back to town, i had a nice little scone before hopping on the bus to inverness. as luck would have it, i recognized one of the castle employees at the bus stop, and we got to talking… turns out, he’s from virginia, but has spent the last 4 years at university in aberdeen! he told me about both inverness and aberdeen, and even pointed out a few key spots to check out once we got off the bus. thanks, craig! unfortunately, i was pretty much incapacitated the minute i arrived at the hostel… i laid down around 7:30pm – “just for a  minute” – and ended up sleeping until 8:30 the next morning. considering i usually can’t sleep for more than 9 hours, i was pretty sick.. but the rest did wonders, and i was able to enjoy a lovely day of exploration around the city. i had tea and a scone at an incredible bookshop called ‘leakey’s’ and then walked around for a while before stopping in a ceilidh bar to listen to some traditional music for the arfternoon. all in all, inverness was kind of a wash (thank you, medicated haze), but i definitely enjoyed the parts i did see, and it was well worth the stop, just to see loch ness on the way.

aberdeen was equally medicated, but i was lucky enough to land a couch with some really sweet couchsurfers who showed me around the city and introduced me to several other travelers and students! i got to see the beach, which was beautiful, and also a lot of the architecture around town. aberdeen is called the silver city and/or the granite city, because there were so many fires in aberdeen's history that the town council decided a while back that everything would be made of local granite... and they weren't joking. all the buildings are this sparkly grey... which is absolutely lovely in the sunshine, because everything glitters. but i hear it's pretty morose in the rain - grey ocean, grey city, grey sky. meh. i had a great first day with merle, a german girl doing her erasmus year in aberdeen, and then the next night, i met with another couchsurfer for drinks! it was a really fun few days, and i was definitely blessed to have such great accomodation and company - and weather! it was gorgeous and so not scottish both days i was there. i'm afraid i didn't really do aberdeen justice, but that just means i'll have to go back and enjoy it properly. :)

potentially the best day of my entire sojourn in scotland was the last day.. i got to see several sides of scottish culture, all within 12 hours. if you look on a map of scotland, my trip thus far was about 80% of a big circle-ish shape – all i had left was the finish the circle by getting back to edinburgh, for my flight back to dublin on wednesday. so, tuesday morning, i left aberdeen and headed south. there is a small town called stonehaven, just an hour or so south of the city, which ended up being one of my favourite places in scotland. i got off the bus about 2 miles south of stonehaven, in order to visit the coolest castle ruin ever, dunnottar castle. even the pixar animators thought so! i had brought a picnic along, so i spent part of the afternoon eating my lunch on a very, very old stone staircase and wandering around the rest of the property. from the castle, i walked along the coastal trail back to stonehaven – a beautiful pathway, right on the cliffs and through cow pastures. there’s even a wwi monument along the way. when i finally got back to stonehaven, i had the best scone and tea in scotland (and coincidentally, of my life) and then made my way to the train station!

once i finally got back to edinburgh, i went to drop my stuff off at my couchsurfing friend marlies’ apartment, where i would be staying for the night. i had a pretty quick turn around before i was scheduled to meet up with ryan and kris (remember those australians from earlier? they were in edinburgh for their flight to germany on wednesday!) to head to a real ceilidh! yay! a ceilidh (pronounced cay-lee) is a traditional community dance, where giant scottish men in kilts fling girls around the dance floor. well, not all the time, but that was the dream! in typical small world fashion, cameron and carly had befriended a local named jonathan, one of the employees of their bed & breakfast from the week before, and he had mentioned the ceilidh club that meets on tuesdays. since going to a ceilidh was #1 on my scotland list, i couldn’t refuse… and i even dragged my new friends along! we arrived at the dance hall and met with jonathan and his friends. the universe was smiling upon us, because with my two friends tagging, we were a perfect group of four couples! the rest of the night passed in a loud, sweaty, accordion-accompanied spinning blur. i don’t think i stopped laughing for two hours straight! ceilidh dancing is like a combination of jane-austen-esque country dancing and line dancing, but on crack. i had so, so much fun, and i am so grateful to jonathan for organizing that experience! thanks, jonathan! :)

the evening went by so quickly, and by 11pm, i was about ready to fall over. the group parted ways at the dance hall, and then i said goodbye to ryan and kris after our walk back to the grassmarket. 6am came much too soon, but i did eventually make it onto the airlink bus and out to the airport!

all in all, i had an absolutely unbelievable time in scotland. i made so many friends and even more memories – castles, walks through the countryside, new cities, all manners of transportation (train, bus, rental car, taxi, boat… if only i could have ridden a sheep!), lots of scones…. so much more. now that i’ve gotten a fairly extensive entry-level introduction to the country, i can’t wait to go back and spend more time in my favourite places!

i took over 700 pictures in scotland, but you can see my favourites in this facebook album, starting with picture number 43! (this post starts at 104!)

castles and cattle - scotland, week one.

oh, where to begin. time passes so strangely here; i feel like i’ve been gone for ages, but at the same time like the hours are just flying by… already, i’ve been in europe for a month. which means that i’m basically 1/9th through my wanderyear! ach! i’m doing my best to enjoy each moment and not think ahead too much, but that can be a challenge for me. but, i digress.

my silence in the blogosphere over the last while was due to the fact that i spent two magical weeks in scotland, traipsing around the country and just generally having a great time. after that, i had a whirlwind few days in dublin, a quick flight to bordeaux and a weekend with friends there, and theeeen i got to my village. but i’m here now! and i can blog again! so, without further ado… phase one of blog catch-up: scotland!

week one:

i spent the first week of my fortnight in scotland (relevant use of fortnight, win!) with two very dear friends from back home. cameron and carly have been in my life for years – we became friends back in middle school / high school respectively, and have been blessed to share quite a few fun times together. (probably the coolest of which, until scotland, was that one time i was a bridesmaid in their wedding.) cameron is in seminary at sewanee these days, and was lucky enough to get accepted into a semester-long exchange program in cambridge, england! so, we got to plan a little friend-adventure for their first week in the uk.

i flew into edinburgh from dublin late on the 11th , and had the hilarious experience of having an international flight be shorter than the bus ride from the airport to my host’s flat across the city (50 minute flight < 1h15m bus ride). the next morning, i met cam and carly in the city center and we did some errands before heading to explore edinburgh castle! it was my first major “sight” in scotland, and it did not disappoint. hundreds upon hundreds of years of history, overlooking a beautiful city from its perch high up on a hill. the sheer cliff drops on three sides made it even more dramatic. after a long walk around the area, we stopped for dinner at a pub called ‘the last drop’ (so named due to its proximity to the gallows which used to be nearby…). i tried haggis for the first (read: only) time and had my first (read: not last) scottish whiskey of the trip. for dessert, we treated ourselves to hot drinks at the elephant house, where j.k. rowling wrote the beginning of the harry potter series! the magic was palpable – the view from the window of the castle up on the cliff really gave away the inspiration for hogwarts! the bathroom walls were absolutely covered in hp-graffiti – i spent several minutes reading different quotes and smiling at the thought of how many people had come to pay homage to the site.

friday was pretty laid-back – we pretty much just wandered around and went inside any place that took our fancy. the national library was really beautiful, and we found several gorgeous churches! the highlight of the day was the choral evensong we attended at st. mary’s – a beautiful service, in an even more breathtaking location. the evening was spent chatting with new friends and listening to some traditional music!

our biggest day in edinburgh was saturday – i can conservatively say we walked a half-marathon over the course of the day! my sweet couchsurfing host, marlies from amsterdam, came with us for most of the day. we started at the holyrood house, which is the queen’s official residence in scotland,  where we learned about the history of the crown in relation to scotland. from there, we walked up, up, up to the very top of arthur’s seat, the legendary location of camelot. the hike was steep, but the view from the top was worth it!! once we descended and had a little lunch, marlies went off to work and the rest of us walked alllll the way across town to the royal botanical gardens. once we finally got to a pub for after-dinner drinks, i really felt like we’d earned our whiskeys!

sunday morning was a treat – i taught marlies how to make pancakes and scrambled eggs! we had a great last breakfast together before cameron, carly and i headed to stirling. the train ride was short and sweet, but due to weekend construction, we had to take a bus for the last leg of our journey. we finally arrived in stirling, dropped our bags off, and headed right over to the castle for a  tour.

my favourite part of stirling was definitely the castle. scotland is full of beautiful, historical places, but stirling castle is probably in the top 5 most historically significant. so many battles took place around the castle hill, and so many political figures resided there or at least visited. we had the coolest, most passionate tour guide ever, too, so that made our tour even more awesome.

even though we had three nights in stirling, sunday was really our only day in the city. on monday, we picked up our rental car (mad props to cameron for driving on the other side of the road!!!) and took a day trip out to the eastern coast, stopping for the afternoon in st. andrews before heading back along the coastal route. st. andrew’s was absolutely stunning, and i got to go see several of the places my best friend told me about from her semester abroad there! so fun. the next day, we took another day trip in the other direction out to loch lomond (you take the high road, i’ll take the low road… etc). we drove around the entire national park, stopping when a view compelled us. we even hiked up a smallish mountain (big hill?), where we were caught by one of scotland’s famous weather changes and had to slip and slide our way back down, through the tall grass. i almost got in a fight with a sheep at the bottom of the hill. on the way home from loch lomond, we stopped in doune – famous for the use of doune castle in ‘monty python and the holy grail’… needless to say, we trotted around with our fake coconut sounds and shouted insults to each other in atrocious french accents for about thirty minutes. 

wednesday morning, we went our separate ways – cam and carly went south to oxford for a c.s. lewis conference and i continued on my own for another week of scottish adventure! but that’s a story for another post… :)

pictures from this post are available in my facebook album! just start after the dublin ones. take a look! :)

the french riviera; it’s like florida, but way less tacky.

(continued from the post “getting down in barcelona”...)

tuesday, 3 may 2011

...we landed in lyon, a city in the eastern region of france. after the previous days’ housing worries, i was glad to have found a place for us to sleep! we took the tram from the airport to the city centre, and then the metro out to meet our host. her name is hélène, and she is an angel from heaven, i swear. she came to meet us at the stop and then walked us back to her flat. she live in a little neighborhood at the top of a hill, overlooking the main city.. and her apartment is incredible. we walked in and were immediately greeted with a deep red, textured-wall entry way. hélène said we’d be sleeping in her room, since it was at the back and furthest from the morning’s construction noises. her bedroom was this lovely eggplant colour with orange trim and awesome african-print fabrics on the bed and chairs. her sitting room was bright yellow, with funky and unique couches in purple, and a patio table complete with umbrella in the breakfast nook! the apartment went on for several rooms in the same style.. rachel and i were astonished. usually, the french are so demure and muted in their colour choices. but not hélène! she matched her apartment perfectly – bright reddish-maroon hair, ecclectic blue and green outfit, red lipstick and blue eyeshadow.. and a wonderful spirit! she immediately offered us food – fruit, cheese, bread, yogurt – and then let us get settled.

around 4pm, we left to go explore the city, as it was really our only chance! we walked down this huge set of stairs into the town, and then literally just walked up and down streets, along the river, through plazas.. trying to soak up as much of the city as we could. we stopped for a drink, and then grabbed some groceries before heading back up the hill around 8pm. since lyon itself isn’t actually very big, i feel like we did a good job seeing a large percentage of the city in such a small amount of time! once we got back to the apartment, we were exhausted.. hélène wasn’t home (she’d given us keys), but i cooked us a little dinner of pasta and then we just laid in bed reading until bedtime!

wednesday, 4 may 2011

i thought that i couldn’t sleep for more than 9 hours, but after many nights of sleeping on small pallets or couches, a real bed was enough to keep me out for more than 10 hours! it was luxury at its finest – but considering we’d gone to bed around 11, we still woke up earlyish at 10am. we packed our stuff up and then hélène surprised us with an awesome savory tarte for lunch! two kinds of cheese and garlic.. it was DELISH. she had to leave around 12:45, so said our goodbyes and left then too. we hung out in a park for about an hour before heading to the train station...

our next stop was a city called nice (pronounced neese, like geese), situated right on the mediterranean coast, almost all the way to italy. we had several hours on the train, though, since we had to go out of our way and change trains in marseille. we finally arrived in nice around 8:30, where one of our hosts came to meet us at the train station. we stayed with an awesome french couple, valentin and yasmine, in their incredible attic apartment. it was the fourth floor of this beautiful old villa building, on the north side of the city. they have a sweet cat and an adorably decorated place. rachel and i enjoyed every minute of our stay! we talked for a long time after arriving, especially about the 3-week tour they are doing of the southwest USA, starting in a few days! they are starting in albuquerque and visiting several national parks, vegas, and eventually making their way to san francisco.. couchsurfing all the way! i hope they have an absolutely marvelous time – i know they will! valentin even helped me plan out our touring for the following day – he had some awesome suggestions! yasmine made an awesome quiche and salad for dinner.. yum. after dinner, i took a much needed shower before skype-calling my parents and heading to bed.

thursday, 5 may 2011

thursday was a long day!!!! so much walking. but totally worth it! we woke up around 9am to the sound of oranges being juiced... and walked out to the living room to find breakfast pastries and goblets (yes, small crystal goblets) of freshly squeezed orange juice. more praise for couchsurfing, can i get an amen? awesome. we ate and then walked down to the train station to catch our 17-minute-long train to the swankiest little principality on the planet – monaco. what a freaking FANCY place! we spent the morning wandering around monte carlo, marveling at the amazing amounts of money on display. i literally lost count of the number of bentleys i saw.. but i am absolutely sure than i saw probably 25 million dollars worth of car.. so many bentleys, rolls royces, ferraris.... my word. and then there were all yachts in the harbor... plus the stores – gucci, prada, hermes.. all in a row. SO MUCH WEALTH. even the banks were called ‘wealth management’ places.. geez. we went up to ‘old’ monte carlo and watched the (rather unimpressive) changing of the guard, grabbed some sandwiches for lunch, and taking in the amazing views before hopping a bus back to the train station.

we took the train 8 minutes back towards nice, getting off in a town called ‘eze’. this stop was purely on valentin’s recommendation, and it was SO worth it. we had to take another bus up into the mountains, but once we got there, we were rewarded with a teeny little stone village, perched high up on top of the hill, overlooking the medeterranean and the beaches below.. each little street was so cute, with art shops and other merchants. we got ice cream and wandered around for an hour before heading back down to the beach. on the bus ride down the hill, rachel realized that every single passenger on the bus was an anglophone – we were on a bus with probably 40 middle-aged to elderly american tourists. haha. we got back to the train station and walked down to the beach and dip our toes in the water for a bit before our train arrived. once it did, we had a short ride back to nice!

once we were back, we still had lots of time to kill before yasmine was off work. we ended up walking allllll over the city, carrying the groceries we had bought while still thinking we could drop them off at the apartment.. whoops. this was our best time to see nice, though, so i’m happy we did so much walking. we even got to sit on the beach for a while before yasmine called us and said she was home. we got back and chilled for a bit before breaking out the supplies we’d purchased – because we promised to make yasmine her favourite treat.. blueberry muffins! i even persuaded everyone to let me do half the batch as raspberry muffins. they turned out well, if just a little crispy due to some temperature confusion and a super hot oven. they were definitely edible (more than edible!) and we all enjoyed them immensely! it was nice to do some baking, too.. i’ve missed it!

after the muffins, we all went out for drinks and snacks in old nice, at a really cool bar. it reminded me of being inside jules verne’s sketch book, somehow.. really interesting décor. we walked there and back though, completing a VERY long day of walking! once we got back, i looked for a few hosts in cannes, our next stop, before heading to bed.

friday, 6 may 2011

in retrospect, i would not have done this day the way it happened. but i cannot tell the future, so when it started i was still pleased with my plan! we woke up to muffins and orange juice around 9am again. we ate, packed up, said our goodbyes, and left around 10am to catch our 10:30 train to cannes, of film festival fame. the ride was short, but unfortunately, the luggage holding area in the station was closed. so we had to lug our bags around with us as we strolled the beach walk for a while. we got to see the set up preparations for the film festival, which began a few days after we were there. the city was nice, but the beach itself was gorgeous. i’d just like to insert a comment here that can be applied to every time i saw the ocean during this trip – the colour of the medeterranean is incomprehensible. it is blue.. but it is turquoise, and green, and purple, and indigo, and navy. it is the brightest body of water i have ever seen.. i could have stared at it for hours. anyway, we got sandwiches for lunch and headed back to the train station.

our next stop was st. tropez, the famed beach destination for stars of every generation. it’s supposed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in europe. too bad it’s next to IMPOSSIBLE to get there!! ugh. we took the train from cannes to st. raphael, the nearest city with a train station. from there, we had to take a bus. if i had known how long the bus ride was, i would have just suggested we stay in st. raphael and go to that beach. but, we commited to st. tropez and got on the bus. an hour and a half with a crazy bus driver later, we finally arrived in st. tropez.. only to realize that, in order to be back in st. raphael in time to make our train to our next host, we had to be back on the bus in an hour and a half. and we were on the exact opposite side of the city from where we needed to be.. and we still had our suitcases. struggle. after walking for a while (in the wrong direction, as it happened), we finally decided to give up on the “famous” beaches, and just find ANY beach to lay on for the 45 minutes we had left. so we took a nap on the beach and then woke up just in time to make it back to the bus. the ride back was twice as bad as the ride there, because there was so much more traffic and complaining from the driver (of course it was the same guy). he yelled at people for talking too loudly.. and by that, i mean talking. at all. we FINALLY made it back to st. raphael, got some food for snacks, and got on our train to marseille.

our next host was actually a friend of ours, not a couchsurfer. her name is laure and she is awesome! she had done a semester abroad at belmont, where both rachel and i met her. i only knew her in passing from the language lab where we both worked, but she and rachel became good friends during her stay. rachel even spent a week at her house in january before coming to angers. laure picked us up from the train station and drove us back to her house, about 25 minutes away. we got there and i got to meet her parents, who are both so sweet! we talked for a while, had snacks, and then rachel and i gratefully got into bed.

saturday, 7 may 2011

we slept in quite a while (for girls with things to do!) and woke up for breakfast around 10am. we had time to shower and get ready before laure drove us into aix-en-provence, another town nearby, to explore. it is a beautiful city! we toured the fine arts museum, which had several cezannes, as aix was his hometown. we found an awesome english bookstore/tea room, exactly like the one i would open if i were to open a bookstore. since it was saturday, the town was bustling with activity – terraces full of café-going people-watchers, shoppers with arms full of their latest hauls, tourists snapping photos of statues and church spires. we stopped for drinks at laure’s favourite bar before heading home. on our way, we grabbed some groceries to make burgers for dinner. the burgers were great, but the fries were soggy. i don’t know how i made my first batch of fries earlier this semester, but i haven’t been able to make them crispy ever since! i don’t understand it. anyway, we had some ice cream for dessert before settling in for a ‘friends’ marathon before bed! such a fantastic show. after a few hours, we called it a night.

sunday, 8 may 2011

american mother’s day! i have the best mom ever!

we got up for breakfast pretty late, and made our way out to the little pool in laure’s backyard for some sun time in the afternoon. beautiful. around 5pm, we headed into marseille to do some shopping and walk around, hoping to ultimately find a place to watch the marseille/lyon football match later in the evening. we found this awesome bagel shop (lol!) and ate there for dinner.. i hadn’t had a bagel in over 4 months, so it was pretty phenomenal. the pub across the street was playing the game, so we went over and posted up at a corner table for a few hours! the game was great – started out slow but had several goals near the end! unfortunately, marseille ended up losing the match, but for a while the energy was pretty electric! it’s always so fun to watch a match with locals. after it was over, we walked back the car and headed home. we had another ‘friends’ mini-marathon before bedtime. :)

monday, 9 may 2011

our last day of the trip! we had purchased tickets to do a boat cruise of the ‘calanques’ along the coast near marseille. we took the train into town, to avoid having to find a place to park, and got lunch before heading to the port. we got on our little cruise boat and headed out to sea! after the 3 hour tour, i still wasn't sure what a ‘calanque’ is.. i've since learned that it translates to mean ‘rocky inlet’. but the whole thing was so pretty! we bobbed up and down the coast, snapping photos of the dramatic cliff faces and peaceful inlets.. again, incomprehensibly blue water, with broad, white cliffs as a background now! near to the end of the tour (we saw 12 calanques in all), the three of us got a teensy bit seasick, so we all laid our heads down for a while on the ride back. but we perked up enough to see the ride back into the port, through the massive entry corridor, framed by hilltop fortresses. just outside of the harbor sits the castle where edmund dantes was imprisoned in ‘the count of monte cristo’! three cheers for literary history. after our boat tour, we walked back to the train station and headed back to st. victoret, laure’s little town.

once we got back, we napped for a while before getting up for dinner. laure’s parents had friends over, a nice french couple who had no troubles speaking with us! we joked around for a while until dinner was served – a delicious sort of shepard’s pie type thing.. it was this huge casserole dish with duck and vegetables topped with mashed potatoes and baked.. YUM. we had salad, radishes, and bread as well. SUCH a great dinner! i have missed home-cooked mom food so much! after dinner we sat and talked and ate cherries from the garden for a long time before we three girls retired to our bedrooms downstairs. since it was our last night there, laure agreed to sacrifice sleep for more ‘friends’ bonding. :) we went to bed around midnight, though, so it wasn’t too bad!

tuesday, 10 may 2011

laure had to leave for work early, so we woke up to say goodbye. she was such a great host, and i am so grateful and happy we got to stay with her! she left around 8am, and rachel and i went back to sleep for a few hours. around 11am, i got up to take a shower. we both went out to lay by the pool for a while, and then came in to get our bags packed up. laure’s mom took us to the train station for our 3:30 train, gave us bags with food and drinks and cookies, and sent us on our way back home to angers.

the train ride was direct, but 5 hours long.. we were both so happy to be off that train by the end of it! we got back to our dorm around 9pm, and spent the rest of the night visiting with friends who we hadn’t seen in 2 weeks! i even went out that night, just so i could spend some time with them.. every minute counts!

_____________________________________________________________________ 

the days in between my return and next departure have been filled with friend time. i’m trying to have as much as possible! i DID have a great free dinner on wednesday night, courtesy of the university of angers. free crepes are the best!! and i also got to read to SUPER AWESOME books – the first two books in the ‘hunger games’ series by suzanne collins. i highly recommend them and i can’t wait to get my hands on the third one!

i’m heading off to ireland in the morning! well, my flight isn’t until the afternoon, but i’m out of the dorm around 11! i’ll be there for 10 days, and i’m so excited! stay tuned for that post somewhere around the 28^th.. :)

--jill


ps - as always, check out my facebook album for photos of the trip!

getting down in barcelona!

alright, team, i’m back! i just spent the last two weeks on my “easter vacation” – which is actually just the first two weeks of summer, because i had no school to come back to. woo! two weeks away from my computer has yielded many stories to tell. i’m going to split my trip into two blog posts – barcelona and the french riviera. here’s the first installment!

the days leading up to my departure were filled with preparations, friends, goodbyes, and planning. there’s always planning when i’m involved. rachel and i had many goals for our two week excursion to the south, and i wanted to make sure we did as many as possible! it was tough to say goodbye to friends, especially the few that i wouldn’t be seeing again! fortunately, i still have the chance to see the majority of my friends once more before we all go back to our corners of the world.

wednesday, 27 april 2011

i woke up early to finish packing, check my computer stuff, and say goodbye to shane (he moved back to ireland the day before we returned – but i’ll see him next week when i go visit!) rachel and i left the dorm around 11am.. with many  miles to go before we slept. we took several modes of transportation (bus to train station, train to the paris airport, plane to barcelona, bus to city centre, walked to apartment) and then arrived at our first of five lodgings for the trip!

our friend natalie and one of her friends visiting from canada were in barcelona with us for the first few days, so the four of us rented two rooms off of airbnb.com from a sweet spanish family in lieu of a hostel or hotel. natalie and alyse arrived only a few hours before us (they were flying in from bordeaux), so we all got to explore together. the bed and breakfast option ended up being pretty cheap (only 20 euro per person), and we got breakfast every day! having real beds is a nice bonus. :) the family was so sweet – three generations of spanish women; a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter. they were all so kind and funny – the five-year-old aurora was so spirited and engaging! we loved staying with them, because it gave us a feel for “real” spanish life.. not crazy hostel traveler life.

once we got settled in, we all decided to go out and see the nightlife a little bit. the night of the 27^th was actually an important one in barcelona – the football club (that’s soccer team for you non-followers :P) was playing their biggest rival (madrid) in the semi-finals of the playoffs. as we were sitting in the apartment resting, we heard the streets absolutely erupt with cheers after the star of barcelona, lionel messi, scored two excellent goals. it was so cool to go out on the balcony and see people jumping and dancing and celebrating on all the surrounding balconies, in the streets, in cars – yelling, honking horns, blowing air horns. it was insane. when we left the apartment and got to las ramblas (the biggest streen in barcelona), we arrived literally minutes after the end of the match. there were probably thousands of people in the street, all cheering and singing.. some ardent supporters were even climbing lamp posts and waving flags from the top. it was an amazing welcome to an awesome city. we walked around some more before heading home and going to bed.

thursday, 28 april 2011

thursday was wonderful! we woke up and ate our breakfast before getting ready for the day. the four of us left around 11am and walked the 30 or so minutes down to barceloneta beach, one of the most popular beaches. it was really beautiful, but pretty annoying – every four minutes, a small asian woman came up to us offering a massage, or a henna tattoo, or something. we got really good at saying “no, gracias.” like we were professionals. there were some clouds in the sky, but it was still nice enough to lay out for a little while and soak up the beachy atmosphere. around 1:30, we left the beach and took the metro to the passeig de grácia, which is kind of like the 5^th avenue of barcelona. there are several buildings on this street by the architect antoní gaudi, probably the most famous figure in barcelona. there is one block with three different modern-style buildings, by three different architects, right next to each other. it’s called the ‘illa de la discordia’ – the block of discord. the three buildings are very different in style, and each very unique. it was so neat to see the contrasts between such interesting architecture!

once we took our photos, we walked around for a while in search of some lunch. eventually we landed on a little corner store that sold these pizzas.. on baguettes. heaven! they were delicious. we ate as we walked back to the metro, and then hopped on to the base of the foothills on the edge of the city. we headed to one of the most famous landmarks in barcelona – park güell. there was an unbelievably steep hill to climb, but fortunately half of it was by escalator. but my goodness.. i couldn’t believe the incline! once we got to the top of the escalators, there was still a good bit of pathway before we reached the tippy top. we climbed up this stone structure to take in an amazing panoramic view of the second largest city in spain. from there, we descended into the park to check out all the gaudí designed elements. there was one part with these crazy concrete columns that looked like trees, but different.. i can’t describe it. there are pictures. from there, we went to the plaza with the craziest bench ever! it’s a super, super long squiggly mosaic bench that forms the edge of an entire rooftop plaza. it is SO beautiful! people brought their old dishes and tiles and whatever they wanted, and it came together to form one of the most unique pieces of art i have ever seen. underneath that rooftop plaza was a hall filled with giant columns (and more mosaic on the ceiling). the entryway to the park has two more gaudí buildings – which look straight up like gingerbread houses. again, check my album for photos! after the park, we made our way DOWN the steep hill (much nicer), stopping in souvenir shops along the way.  we hopped on a bus to the apartment, picked up some food for dinner, and made a nice meal. around 8:30, we went back out to catch happy hour at a bar off of las ramblas. it was called ‘betty ford’ and had a really cool 50’s vibe. plus, the drinks were great. we went to one place afterward to get a tapas snack (first experience with patatas bravas, GLORIOUS) and then walked home and headed to bed.

friday, 29 april 2011

friday was natalie and alyse’s last day in barcelona, so they got up really early to do some more touristy things.. rachel and i slept in a little before getting up and eating our breakfast around 9:30. we headed out around 11am to go explore a beautiful park in the gothic quarter – there was an amazing fountain, a pond with rowboats, a zoo, a botanical garden, and a geology museum! it started out rainy but the weather improved gradually throughout the day. we found a really cool burger place for lunch and split 4 fancy mini burgers and a plate of patatas bravas (number 2) while looking up photos of william and kate, who got married on friday. she.. looked.. AMAZING. we met natalie and alyse at the picasso museum around 2pm and looked around there for a few hours. it was a great museum, but the vast majority of the works were pre-cubism.. it did have the entire las meninas study, though, which was awesome. we left around 4:30 and walked around the gothic quarter for a while. rachel and i had read in our in-flight magazine (thanks easyjet!) that there were free tapas during happy hour at this certain bar.. so we went there at 5pm, only to learn that tapas were only offered in the summer. LAME. we kept looking and then eventually decided on a bar called ‘rosa negra’ – they had amazing margaritas (says rachel), plus great nachos and burritos.. she is as much of a mexican food fiend as i am, so we were pretty happy with this decision. we all ate and talked for a while before heading over to the olympic park to watch the magic fountain show. there is a beautiful and very large fountain in front of a very large judicial building.. every night, there is a water and lights show, set to music. it was REALLY awesome.. and i went a little crazy on the photos. :) we left the show around 8:45, and went on an epic (and ultimately unsuccessful) search for churros. we walked WAY too long.. by the end, my back was hurting worse than it ever has in my life. i was near tears by the time rachel and i took the metro back to the apartment. i took a super hot shower and fell into bed. natalie and alyse stayed out a little later, but came back to back before too long.

saturday, 30 april 2011

a very calm day, thankfully. we had already done SO much walking! natalie and alyse woke up really early to go to the airport, but rachel and i didn’t check out of our apartment until around 11am. we said goodbye to our little spanish family and then headed across town to find our couchsurfer’s apartment. we had to walk a little way from the metro stop, but once we got there, we were super excited! the flat was in a REALLY nice apartment building, just 3 blocks from the sagrada familia cathedral (gaudí’s masterpiece of a modern cathedral, which has been under construction for over 200 years and still has 100 to go!). i can’t tell you how great this location/apartment was. plus, our host was so, so, so nice (offered us chocolate within 5 minutes of our arrival!) and his roommates were all great as well. the weather was gorgeous, so we did some brief grocery shopping before going on a nice leisurely (but also stupidly long) walk.. actually, i’ve just done some clever google maps-ing, and i’d estimate that we walked between 7 and 12 miles every day. for 6 days.. we DEFINITELY walked more than 60 miles in barcelona. YEESH. anyway, we went on a long walk and then came back to cook dinner with one of the roommates carine and her friend axel. our host was at work until super early in the morning, so it was just the 4 of us. here’s the best part – the roommate was from angers! where i live in france! and her friend was french too.. so we spent the whole night speaking french. it was awesome. we even watched a (fairly depressing) french film as well. i had to stay up to let our host benjamin in the building (we had taken his keys earlier that day), so we arrived around 2:30am. we stayed up talking until nearly 4am before crashing on the couch/fold out bed!

sunday, 1 may 2011

after staying up so late, we definitely had a bit of a lie-in on sunday. i woke myself up around 11:30 and did some travel notes, etc for a while. two weeks away means i have to keep track of everything, or blogging would be impossible! i also got some planning done before rachel woke up around 1pm. we ate some cereal and got ready for the day, leaving the apartment around 3pm to explore some more! we walked around the gothic quarter, which is an amazing neighborhood in barcelona where the majority of the old, old buildings are. we also looked around the surrounding areas.. throughout the afternoon, we nibbled on waffles with ice cream on top and some more patatas bravas. i finally broke down and bought a barcelona football club jersey (with messi’s name/number!) – there was a place with a sale, and i got a kids’ size, so it wasn’t expensive at all! we met carine around 6pm outside the old cathedral to supposedly watch some traditional dancing.. except it didn’t happen. instead, we saw an awesome street dance performance with some jaw-dropping stunts! carine gave us a tour of the university area, which we hadn’t seen yet, and we went for a drink at the sister bar of rosa negra, called rosa raval. carine headed back to the flat around 8pm, and rachel and i went to find our dinner restaurant.

since i do most of the planning for our trips, i put rachel in charge of deciding where/what we eat.. she’s such a great foodie, i’m never disappointed! we went to one of the most popular restaurants in barcelona – les quinze nits. there was a big line, but it moved quickly. unfortunatly, they had NO chicken, so i never got my chicken and rice.. but we had good food anyway. :) after dinner, we stopped by a bar called ‘els cuatro gats’, one of picasso’s old haunts. it was so swanky! live piano in the back dining room, awesome murals, LOADS of picasso sketches.. i really liked it. we stayed for dessert and ended up sitting and talking for over 2 hours. we left around 12:30am and went to meet up with benjamin, our host, and his date for the evening – another frenchie! i swear, the french are everywhere! we met up in a central location and then walked over to a little area on the outside of town to a bar. rachel and i only stayed for a little while, and then got a cab back to the apartment. unfortunately, no one was there to let us in.... so we were locked out. after a few minutes of uncertainty and nerves, i finally decided to buzz the next-door neighbor (whose lights were still on at 2am, thank goodness) to ask them to open the outside door. i rang her, explained that we were friends of her neighbors staying for a few days, had no keys and no way to get inside, and could she please buzz us in? except i did that all in spanish. WHAT?! thank heavens that my spanish education was enough to get us off the street in the middle of the night. benjamin arrived back not too much later (after several phone calls) and he let us in the apartment. we stayed up talking pretty late (again) before i declared bedtime.

monday, 2 may 2011

our last day in barcelona! we woke up around 8am and left for sagrada familia by 9am, stopping by the bank on the way (but the ATM was broken.. lame). the line to get into the cathedral was long, but it moved really quickly.. we were inside by 9:30 or 9:45. the exterior of the building itself is breathtaking – so much absolutely mind-blowing detail! it’s actually OVERLY detailed.. you just can’t take it in all at once. it seems so busy! the inside, while still very busy and overwhelming, is much simpler in design. there was so much light inside, too. the overall effect was so beautiful. we stayed for about 45 minutes before hopping on the metro out to camp nou, the home stadium of the football club. camp nou is actually the biggest stadium in europe, with a 100,000 person capacity! it is ENORMOUS. we walked around the outside and then looked through the megastore, because the actual tours of the stadium were about 20 euro and there was a 3 hour wait! sheesh. we left the stadium around 12 and headed down to montjuïc park, where all the ’92 olympic buildings are. we didn’t really get to see the park, though, because our search for lunch ended up taking us in the opposite direction and we never doubled back. but we did get to run several errands (bank, post office, zara to get shoes) before heading back to the flat for a nap. we slept for a few hours and then woke up and wrote postcards before heading back out around 7pm. as an (ex)employee of the ritz-carlton in barcelona, benjamin gave us two spare room keys and some cards that would get us into any club for free! so we went to a café for dinner before doing some souvenir hunting down las ramblas. we walked all the way to the olympic port (where the hotel/clubs are) and then checked out the area and two super awesome clubs. the first one was a salsa dance bar, which was incredible! i seriously just sat for about 45 minutes and watched these beautiful people dancing like they were professionals. it was so wonderful! once midnight rolled around, we headed to the club that benjamin suggested – opium (pictured; outside beachfront seating). we had to show the keys to the bouncer, but he let us right in! sweet! it was by far the swankiest place i have ever been – beautiful décor, beautiful location, beautiful people.. i felt a little out of place, but it was great. we danced for a while and then took a few laps before heading out. after calling benjamin to figure out which bus to take, we hopped right on the bus.... except it never stopped at our stop. sooo we ended up riding the bus for about an hour and twenty minutes, on a FULL circuit of the city. whoops. we got back around 2:45 am and were in bed by 3:30. long day for sure!

tuesday, 3 may 2011

waking up was very hard. but we had to, because we had a plane to catch! we packed up and left the keys on the table. i’d been stressed due to a couchsurfing cancellation in lyon for the night of the 3^rd, which still wasn’t solved when we left our flat in barcelona at 8:45am. i sent out one message, pretty much blind, to a woman in lyon who had logged on just 30 minutes beforehand. i wasn’t sure the next time we’d have wifi for me to use my ipod to check emails, so i left my phone number, asking her to call or text when she got the message. we made our way across town to the bus stop where the airport line would pick us up.. we got on the bus around 9:30 and were at the airport by 10:10 for our 11:40 flight. perfect! check-in was non-existant, and security took about 4 minutes, so it was a relaxing airport experience. we had some snacks at the terminal before boarding.. and i got a text from the woman in lyon! she wasn’t able to host us, but she had a friend who could!!! i texted the friend and let her know that i would call when we arrived in france. SO much pressure and stress off of my mind! we boarded the plane and took off back to franceland...

(to be continued in the next post, ‘the french riviera; it’s like florida, but way less tacky.’)

ps - to see photos of this trip, check out my facebook album!

a weekend for the ages.

first off, i would like to address a topic/question/concern that has been brought up to me several times since i started this blog. that question being, of course.. “why don’t you use capital letters?” there are several reasons, but in brief; 1) i type fast, and for a long time. hitting shift at the beginning of each sentence is inefficient, and i dislike inefficiency. 2) i punctuate. you obviously know when a new sentence has begun, because there was either a period, question mark, or exclamation mark to signify that break. i quite like punctuation for that very reason. 3) it’s a stylistic choice. i prefer the way my posts look this way... it seems more uniform and aesthetically pleasing to me. 4) i DO use capital letters... for emphasis. (see what i did there?) by withholding the capitalization of letters until i really need it, i feel like my literary voice is more audible in my writing. 5) as a follow-up to #4, when i read capital letters, the voice in my head SHOUTS. (did yours?) 6) does capitalizing the first letter of each sentence actually mean anything? it’s not like the words are different. :)

sorry that was kind of rant-y, but i figured i’d clear that issue up. :)

well anyways, back to business. settle in, because this post’s gonna be a long one.. this past weekend was probably one of the most singularly unique weekends i will ever have. in my life. here’s why;

friday, 1 april 2011

i was going to try to make a funny april fool’s joke here, but i’ve got nothing. april fool’s day in france is called ‘poisson d’avril’ (april fish) – and is a holiday during which school children run around slapping smelly fish stickers on their friends’ backs and giggling triumphantly. so we didn’t really celebrate it. instead, my friends jessie and claire came with me on a fabulous weekend getaway to bordeaux! i’ve been wanting to visit bordeaux for a while, and i was so happy to have friends come with me! we left angers around 9:30am and traveled southward via train. it was about a 4 hour journey, through some seriously beautiful countryside. we arrived in bordeaux around 1:30, greeted by blue skies and sunshine.. starting the weekend off right! we followed the directions that our host had texted to me earlier, and made our way to the apartment where we’d be staying friday and saturday night. as we’re walking down this small side street, looking for number 19, i kept getting distracted by the enormous and very old cathedral that was literally across the street. like... apartment on the right, cathedral on the left. not too shabby of a location, to say the least!!

we were only in the apartment for a few minutes, just to say hi to the girls who’d be hosting us and to drop our backpacks off. we set off around 2pm to find some food and explore. we ended up making it about 50 feet, before deciding to eat at a cafe about 4 doors down from the apartment. they had terrace seating, right on the plaza in front of the cathedral, so we sat down and had some lunch. it was even warm enough for bare arms, bless that sunshine! we enjoyed our meal and then checked out the inside of the cathedral.. there were new stained glass windows (from the 60’s) that really reminded me of the animation from the beginning of beauty and the beast. it was awesome. we left and kept wandering around town until we came across a tourism centre. they gave us some ideas of stuff to do in and around bordeaux, stocked us up with maps and brochures, and saw us off. since the weather was so beautiful, we walked down to the riverfront to relax on the grass for a while. it was here that my earlier-formed hypothesis was confirmed... bordeaux is a hipster city. there were so many young, hip, indie-looking people! at cafés, by the river, walking around.. it was nice to have a little connection back to the hipster-swarming campus of belmont. :) after our little pause, we walked back down the river to the apartment, stopping for a little ice cream snack at the place next door. when we arrived back at the apartment, we sat and talked with mathilde (our host) and her friend enoco for a while. they’re both from the pays basque, which is a region of france that borders spain and has a very distinct culture. they even have a different language (basque), which i heard mathilde’s friend marie speak later. we had been invited to go with mathilde and enoco to a concert later in the evening, so we all decided to eat together at the apartment. marie came over, and we had a vegetable salad, green beans / peas, bread / cheese, and waffles with nutella for dessert. deeeelicious!

around 9:30, we all walked over to the concert venue, which was about 5 minutes away on foot. the show was actually a benefit rally for a local feminist group, raising money and awareness for victims of domestic abuse. suffice it to say, this evening was probably one of the most unique, if not THE most unique, evening ever. we wound our way through tiny alleyways, finally arriving at the venue, which was the size of a small apartment, but had a “stage”, bar, and lounge outside. it was called the athénée libertine, and had all kinds of murals and posters and propaganda on the walls, all supporting various activist groups. my favourite part was the wall behind the stage, which was covered in over 30 hand-painted portraits of the most influential feminists in history; simone de beauvoir, judith butler, etc. we arrived during the second set out of three, initally questioning our decision to come at all. the “band” was just three girls in ‘zorro’ costumes, banging away on instruments and yelling into the microphones. that, combined with the overwhelming smell of smoke and sweat, made for a rather unpleasant first impression. but luckily, they were finished within a few minutes of our arrival, and we had a chance to talk to some girls working the “merch” table – they had t-shirts and pamphlets and patches, all for sale for however much you wanted to give. i bought a patch and a pamphlet that details all of the portraits on the wall. after a few minutes, the third set began. all i heard at first was an electronica-pop beat coming from the speakers.. and then i saw the group. it was comprised of two girls, both of whom were wearing baggy jeans and graphic tees. each girl was rocking a boy haircut and some black-framed glasses, and one had a flat-billed hat that said “whooo!” on it. honestly, they were two of the most androgynous humans i have ever encountered. they could have easily been pretty effeminate boys. anyway. they started their set, which was a series of conversationalist rap songs, discussing oppression in the workplace, harassment, and female empowerment.. from what i could tell. it’s hard to keep up with french rap!!!  the second to last song was actually an air-band lip sync perfomance of some 90’s punk song from the tony hawk pro-skater 2 soundtrack. seriously, one girl played air guitar while the other girl mouthed words that i suspect she didn’t even know the meaning of. the singer even crowdsurfed! just launched herself into the 40 person crowd. i was amazed she didn’t hit her head on the ceiling. the whole time, jessie, claire, and i were just laughing and signing along and cheering with the rest of the crowd.. it was so hilariously fun. but the grand finale came when the girls did their a capella encore (in english?) and started in on the final song. apparently it was pretty inspiring, because one of the girls took her top off, which started a chain reaction... suffice to say, they were definitely girls, and i am fairly positive i will never again in my life witness a french feminist naked rap battle. probably.

so, that was pretty hysterical. we left around 11pm, still slightly in shock, and feeling very empowered as women! bedtime couldn’t come early enough, though.. it had been a long day. we got back to the apartment, made up our futon bed (and claire’s little mattress bed on the floor) and got ready to go to sleep. the apartment was awesome, except the location (right next to the cathedral/plaza) stayed pretty lively on a friday night.. so it was noisy allllll night long. i think there might have been a marching band outside at 4am, but i’m not positive. claire went for a run at 7:30, and there were people just leaving the bar next door.. yikes. note to self: next couchsurfing trip, bring ear plugs!

saturday, 2 april 2011

jessie and i woke up around 8:30 when claire came back from her run along the river. we all got ready and then left the apartment to go sign up for our afternoon tour of wine country! we walked back over to the tourism centre and tried to get places on the tour.. but it was full. :( i felt really bad, because claire was super excited about it and i had told her that i didn’t think the places would fill up.. otherwise, we would have gotten our places on friday. the saturday tour went to the médoc region, but i had read so much about this town called st. emilion and how it was the jewel of bordeaux wine country.. so, in a moment of spontaneous planning, i asked the lady about just buying train tickets to st. emilion and doing our own tour. she said it was super easy, and it ended up being cheaper than the other tour. sweet! she even helped us pick out a wine chateau to go visit and called them to make the reservation for us. so we got our information and then went to find some breakfast. this super nice café had a buy one, get one brioche sale, so we got two loaves of brioche and went to eat them next to the river, sitting in between two flowerbeds. it’s a hard life. after our little brunch, we walked back to the apartment and decided to go to the market just outside the door for a while. we walked around this HUGE saturday market – fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, sea food, sweets, bread, homemade pastries, olives... and that was just the food section. the other two-thirds of the market was filled with stalls selling clothing, fabric, jewelry, shoes, random knick-knacks... you name it. we had a great time exploring. i bought a really cute dress for 5 euro (score), jessie bought some food for later, and claire got this precious little antique jewelry box.

around 12:30, we dropped our stuff off at the apartment and made our way to the train station. it was about a 20 minute walk, down the riverside in the bright sunshine. we got there, bought our tickets (8 euro return trip, thank you very much!), and headed out to the platform. the train was this cute little local car, not one of the big, fancy TGV or TER trains. it was kind of like a flashback, retro train. anyway, we were on the train for around 40 minutes, watching as the view from our window went from urban to suburban to vineyard. when we finally got off in st. emilion, it was kind of like a scene in a movie when the bad guy kicks the main character out of the car in the middle of the wildernes.. other than the station and a few random buildings, it was just vineyards for as far as the eye could see. no sign of a city, really, just one house per property. we took some pictures, met a couple from portugal, and then walked up the hill to our chateau destination. luckily everything in st. emilion is accessible by foot, because walking was by far the prettiest part of the day.. as we walked up the hill towards the chateau fonplégade, i couldn’t help but think about how surreal the experience was. but i had that feeling a lot on saturday. we got to the top of the hill, only to realize that we were pretty much the only people there. at all. the girl who was working opened the door and welcomed us inside. i can’t describe how beautiful this property was – the land, the buildings, the décor.. it was gorgeous. we set our bags down and followed our guide outside. the tour we took was just 15 euro – and it was private (just the three of us), given in french, and lasted about an hour. she walked us around outside, telling us about the history ownership of the vineyard. as it turns out, the property was purchased in 2004 by an american couple from california.. they already have another vineyard in napa valley, so they spend six months of the year in each place. i can’t imagine their life except for i bet it’s AWESOME. we then went inside the distillery and saw all the barrels of the 2009 and 2010 wine fermenting, plus the giant production room with the huge barrels that smelled so good. we even got to peek at the owners’ private wine cellar – it reminded me so much of the movie ‘the parent trap’. actually, this whole day reminded me of that movie. anyway, after the tour, we got to have a little ‘degustation’ – tasting. we tried four of the vineyards most popular wines, including the most prestigious and expensive one. even though i don’t really like wine, i felt so fancy! the guide walked us through the process of properly tasting wine, and then did the whole ‘it has a very brown, floral aftertaste, etc etc’ bit. i’m not sure how something can taste brown, but these people knew how to make wine. claire was so inspired that she even bought a bottle to take home and save! after we said goodbye to our guide, we walked up the hill to the little fountain at the top of the vineyard to sit and have our snacks (and a dance party). that was another one of those “i can’t believe i’m doing this” moments.. we were having so much fun. once the strawberries and olives were gone, we scrambled over the back wall of the vineyard (a huge shortcut) and made our way to the teeny, tiny village of st. emilion. (click that link and read the history - amazing!) it was about a mile and a half away, walking down this dusty, gravelly road that wound its way through endless rows of vines. we finally rounded the corner on the tiny village (approximately 2,000 inhabitants) that makes i’d say 98% of its money from tourists visiting the vineyards. every other shop was a wine ‘cave’. we looked out over the rooftops for a while and then made our way down a STEEP road to the main plaza, where we sat in the sunshine at a cafe and had a mid-afternoon snack. our waiter was a total jerk, but everything else was wonderful so i can’t complain! after lunch, we wandered around a little and then made the slow journey back down the hill to the train station. all in all, the trip to st. emilion was about 7 hours of blissful, surreal, time-machine-to-the-past wonderment. DEFINITELY better than a 53-person tour bus to a completely different, medieval-village-less area for 31 euro. sometimes, things just work out better than you could have hoped for.

after a FULL day of walking and sunshine, a short train ride back to bordeaux, and the 20 minute walk from the train station to the apartment, we got back and pretty much crashed from exhaustion. mathilde had left a note saying she and enoco were out for the night, and for us to feel free to eat anything in the house (they’d stocked up at the market). sweet. we made omelettes and had baguettes with cheese and homemade jam (peach and apple – YUM). after dinner, i took a hot bath (gotta take advantage of a bathtub when i can!) and then the three of us just hung out for a little while before getting ready for bed. there was no way we could have topped friday night’s experience, and we were just way too tired to go out again. mathilde called and said they were coming back with friends, so we could sleep in marion’s room (since she was gone for the weekend). we transferred all of our stuff, and just barely heard them come in before we were all out like lights for the entire night. what a day!

sunday, 3 april 2011

the last day of our weekend excursion in bordeaux proved to be not as sunny and warm as the first two days had been.. which was alright, considering we left around noon. we got up early to go to the market again and replenish the fridge after saturday night’s omelette-fest. except unfortunately the sunday market didn’t have the food section.. lame. so we walked around for a while, saw another gigantic cathedral, found a café for our breakfast, and then stopped in a bakery to buy breakfast for mathilde and her friends instead (croissants, brioche, etc). when we got back to the apartment around 11am, they were all still asleep. so we wrote a note, left the bag of goodies and the keys, and made our way to the train station. the journey home was uneventful, except for when we had to actually get up and find our real seats, because we had just chosen three seats together. the train got more and more crowded with each stop, since that train was going to paris. but we only had to wander around for a little while before we found three more seats near to each other. and then a few train transfers later, we were back in angers. it’s nice, having a place that feels like “home” to come back to after a weekend getaway. and it’s even better to have such great friends to “get away” with. :)

_______________________________________________________________________

for pictures of this trip, check my facebook album ‘barefoot in bordeaux’, coming soon!

alright, i’ve decided that i’m going to double post today – just so this entry doesn’t get any more obnoxiously long than it already is! so stay tuned for another entry, quickly forthcoming!

x

my weekend getaway to brest!

ok team – my apologies for the week-long silence!! i spent last week attending classes and preparing for my weekend getaway to brest. thursday was st. paddy’s day, and my irish had a wonderful day of drunken patriotism (except shane, he was just patriotic). i didn’t go out with them, however, because i had to get up SUPER early on friday! and that is where this blog post begins.....

friday, 18 march 2011

i woke up at 5am, having gotten a good 6 hours of sleep (huzzah!). i was meeting andrea at the bus stop at 5:55am, because she had an early morning train to catch as well! the first bus runs at 6:03, and our trains were at 6:43. i packed up my little backpack with a change of clothes and my toiletries and closed down my room for the weekend. it’s a strangely nice feeling, being so productive and active that early in the morning. andi came out to the stop and we got on the first bus – which had several people on it! surprising. thanks to the absense of traffic, we made it to the train station in record time – around 6:18am. i had gone to the station on thursday to print my tickets out, so all we had to do was get our tickets stamped in the little machine and head out to the platform! andrea was headed to paris, to meet her boyfriend at the airport! he came all the way from seattle to visit her for a week.. precious. as it turned out, we were on the same train!! because i had to switch trains several times, my first leg was in the paris direction. so that was nice, we got to chill on the train together for a while. i had to get off at the first stop, though, so we parted ways around 7:30. i had two more legs of my journey, and nagivated both changes without problems. as i was speeding through the french region called “bretagne” (also known as ‘brittany’), the beautiful landscape really struck me. i kept having the sensation that the ground had lights underneath it – the fields were honestly glowing green. very pretty.

i arrived in brest around 11:30am, and asked the information desk where the nearest tourism centre was. the guy pointed me in the right direction, and i set off. after a little round-a-bout way of getting there, i finally arrived and procured the map/bus plan i was searching for. once i had those in hand, i called my hosts for the weekend. i had found a couple who lives just outside of the city centre – their names are trifine and jean-fred. it was jean-fred’s number that i had, so i called him and he told me to come over whenever! so i hopped on a bus (for the only time during the whole weekend) and went to the stop where he was going to meet me. sure enough, i got off the bus and there he was! he drove us back to their little flat, where i put down my bag and we chatted for a while. i was SUPER tired, so i actually ended up taking a nap for a little while. haha! around 3pm, trifine came home for her break, so i finally got to meet her. she works in a fish-n-chips place down by the port, and the poor girl works doubles nearly every day. 9am-3pm and 6pm-midnight. yeeeesh. so she was exhausted, but we did get to chat for a while before jean-fred and i went in to town to check out the art museum. it was very small, but had some pretty decent works! after the museum, we walked around the town for a long time, just so i could see and admire all the new architecture. i also noticed that all of the signs had information in french, and then another language that i honestly could not identify. it looked like a combination of german, old english, and gaelic. i asked jean-fred, and he told me that it is a language called 'breton' - spoken in olden times in the region (bretagne, if you'd forgotten). as it turns out, until 1960, it was ILLEGAL for breton to be spoken or taught! talk about the french sense of pride in their language.. but there has been a revival in the last few decades, and now at least all the signs are in french AND breton. anyway, there is a small fort, sort of like the one in angers.. but the big difference is that brest is a port town. so there is a huge harbor, with tons of boats and shipping docks and all manners of maritime madness. we even saw a circus (literally, i saw camels and an elephant). he gave me a tour of the docks, which are famous for the insane amount of very detailed and artistic graffiti. it was super cool. around 7pm, we went to a local creperie for dinner.. you can’t go wrong with a good creperie. except i gave up meat for lent, so i just had an omelette. :)

at 8:30, we went back up into the town to meet claire, another couchsurfer i had found during my hunt for a host. she couldn’t house me, but she did invite us to go to this little concert in a local bar! it was really fun, and i had a great time getting to know her and her friends. plus, the band was decent, which is a plus. we stayed until about 11:30, and then headed home. trifine got home around 12:15, and we talked very briefly before i excused myself and went to bed.

saturday, 19 march 2011

they had a spare room, with a futon and a desk/computer, etc, so i had lots of privacy for the weekend. the futon was better than sleeping on the floor, but only marginally. the mattress was pretty non-existant, and it was laid out on top of wooden slats. but, i did have this huge duvet comforter and some big pillows, so it was grand. :) i slept well (and for a long time) and woke up feeling ready for another long, touristy day! except jean-fred slept in (because he thought i was still asleep, since i’d shut my door when i left the room), so i had a lovely morning sitting on the sunny spot on the couch, reading the tales of beedle the bard in french. around noon, he woke up and was surprised to see me. that was funny. but he rebounded and ran out to the local bakery to get some breakfast. he came back with a baguette and two pains au chocolat – good man. we had lots of various jams and butters and whatnot to put on the bread, and the pain au chocolat was one of the best ones i’ve eaten. i love french breakfasts. after we finished, i went and got dressed and we headed out for the day.

saturday was a gorgeous day – clear skies and about 60 degrees. our first stop was a 25 minute drive due west, to the pointe st. mathieu. it’s this gorgeous old abbey that now has a big lighthouse attached to it, perched on the top of these steep cliffs that fall right into the atlantic. it is the most western point of france (excluding little islands off the coast)! i really loved walking along the cliff-paths and looking down to the water. it was so clear, you could seriously see straight to the oceanfloor. i learned lots of new vocabulary from jean-fred, and took some awesome pictures (which will be on facebook soon!). we walked through the abbey as well, and then took our time getting back to brest. we made some stops along the way to check out other lookout points, and i took some pretty pictures of the landscape.

once we made it back to town, i popped by an ATM and then we continued on our little tour. he drove me by the stadium where we would be seeing the football match later on, and then took me to this gorgeous botanical garden. thanks to the lovely weather, there were loads of people walking around with their kids or their dogs, just soaking up the sunshine. we walked around for an hour, and then made our way back to the centre of town. we stopped by a bakery and i got the very last tarte aux frambroises (score!) – it was hidden from the shop attendant’s view, so when she said “we have no more.” i said “but there’s one that’s hiding!” and she looked, laughed, and got it for me. it was worth it, because those things are so delicious. anyway, after my snack, it was time to head to the stadium for the match. we had to park kind of far away and then walk back up to the stadium. we got in and chose our seats, underneath the cover in the “avid supporters” section. i had just picked the cheapest seats available, but it turns out they were the best!! the fans of the brest team are CRAZY and hilarious, so i had just as much fun watching them as i did watching the match! it was surreal to finally see a football match in person – after all the times i’ve watched them on tv, actually being there was a dream come true! i didn’t have much emotional investment in the teams, so i was really just happy to be there at all. the brest squad was facing the team from lille, all the way from the north of france, right next to belgium. lille are actually on the top of the bracket in the french league right now, so it was a fun match. brest lost, but i still saw some good goals and learned some awesome fan chants. i left very satisfied! jean-fred and i walked back to the car, drove home, and made some pasta for dinner. trifine got home early (at 11:30) and everyone was in bed by midnight. long but awesome day!!

sunday, 20 march 2011

i woke up around 9am to say thanks and goodbye to trifine before she headed off to work, and then sat reading on the couch for a few minutes before jean-fred emerged. we had a small breakfast, and then i packed up my stuff. at 10am, we got in the car and went to this really neat area of brest called ‘rue st. malo’. it is the only street in the whole city that has been preserved in its pre-war state. in world war 2, the city of brest was pretty much demolished by bombings. but the rue st. malo is tucked down into a little gorge, so it escaped the worst of the attacks. it is completely cobblestoned, with this huge stone wall and these beautiful old stone houses lining the little street. it’s only about 200 feet long but it’s quite charming. jean-fred said that there was an association that raised money to preserve the little street, and now there is a little party every sunday afternoon with food and music.. so cute. after that, we went back to the port to check out this big music/comic book fair that jean-fred had heard about on the radio. it was a one euro entrance fee to browse through probably 20,000 records and nearly as many comic books. i had a fun time looking through all the vinyl, jean-fred found some good deals. around 11:30, we went to meet claire at one of the open-air markets downtown. she had some friends with her, and we ended up sitting outside a café sipping on drinks and talking for about an hour. well.. the talked. i just did my best to listen and keep up! once we all finished our drinks, we walked around the market for a few minutes before i had to head to the train station. i said goodbye to claire and then jean-fred drove me over to the station. he even walked me inside and made sure i made it on the train! such a great host.. :)

the train ride home was awesome. i stayed on the train for about 2/3 of the journey, and then my ticket said i was to transfer to an “autocar”. which is a fancy word for bus. so i took a regional bus for the last hour and twenty minutes, which was actually fantastic. i got to see the back roads of my loire valley region, which is stunning. plus, the bus practically dropped me off at my door! win!

_______________________________________________________________________

all in all, my trip was lovely. i was proud of myself for going all alone, and even prouder of the fact that i spoke english for probably 6 minutes total the whole weekend. plus, it was lovely to see a part of france i would have otherwise missed. i was definitely happy to get back to school and see all my friends, though!! i can’t even think about what it’s going to be like when we all move back to our corners of the world.. ugh. depression.

this week of school is going to be the week of preparation, because i have two big presentations next week. lots of stuff to do! but there are only like 4 weeks of school left, so i’m almost done. CRAZY.

we have two groups of visitors this week – andrea’s boyfriend and claire’s mom/sister! yay visitors. :)

ok, back to the homework that i’m avoiding... :)

xxx jill